The Pros and Cons of Using Airtasker to Find a Website Designer

Finding a website designer can be a complex and stressful task.

Where do you start looking? What questions should you ask? Do you ask for references and sample sites? Is price a critical factor?

Airtasker* offers an alternative to searching various sources to find a designer and then having to compare their offerings. You can post a task and have designers come to you with bids to produce your work.

Is this a good alternative to more detailed research and what are the pitfalls?

Below are the Pros and Cons of using Airtasker to find a website designer.

Pros

• You can save money. • Choose a designer from your mobile phone. • Speed up the process of choosing a designer and starting your website. • Write a brief for your project and designers bid for the privilege of completing your task. • Receive offers from multiple designers – all competing for your business. • View star ratings and comments for Airtaskers competing for your business from previous jobs. • Ask designers competing for your work as many questions as you like on the Airtasker website. • Set a budget for your task and designers offer their budget to complete. • Upload multiple images to your task that illustrate your design style and ideas. • Post small tasks relating to your existing website e.g. fix a plugin issue, add a new page. • Designers have a profile with text and sample work for you to view on Airtasker. • Choose whether your website build/task is performed by someone local (where you can meet to discuss and review the website), or entirely online via a designer in any location in Australia. This gives you access to a larger pool of designers if you choose all of Australia.

Cons

• Most people have no idea where to start when it comes to asking the right questions. • The number of offers you receive may be overwhelming (could you easily choose between 40 plus offers?). • You cannot email or speak to any designers offline before choosing the final designer – this aspect of the site creates the greatest potential for problems in the project. • When you accept a designer for the task, you may realise that you have left important information out of the brief and they have agreed to a task that is different to what you really need. • Some designers are very inexperienced and offer low prices to secure work, this often leads to poorly produced work. • Designer company details and websites are forbidden on the site so it is difficult to see a full range of work from any designer. It is always best to test sites built by a designer, this is discouraged with Airtasker. • Designers are forbidden from posting links to completed websites (image are ok). • Many Airtaskers choose the final designer based on cost and not ratings/skill.

Do you think you can take time to ask the right questions, review the work of designers and choose a designer based on skill and not just price? If so, Airtasker could be a great way for you to choose your next designer for a new or existing website.

If it all sounds too complicated, it is best to avoid Airtasker and use Google searches and recommendations as your method for finding a designer.

As a designer, I have had positive and negative experiences from Airtasker jobs that I have taken on. Generally, people using Airtasker for a new website or a website makeover are not experienced enough to ask the right questions. I have accepted many tasks that turned out to be entirely different to what the person really wanted. This has taken extra time on my part and I have not always been paid for this.

A growing area of my business includes new clients who have used Airtasker and are not happy with the work they paid for. These clients pay me to fix or re-do the website. If they avoided Airtasker to start with, the whole process would have been faster and cheaper.

If you are needing a new website or changes to an existing website, call me first on 0490 140 079 to discuss. This could save you lots of extra cash as well as time. Feel free to email me via info@lucyandmontydesign.com.au

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In case you don’t know what Airtasker is, Airtasker is a trusted community marketplace for people and businesses to outsource tasks, find local services or hire flexible staff in minutes – online or on your mobile*.